Pending Trust
by jejuneepitaph
Summary: Katara doesn't trust Zuko. Not at all, but she wouldn't sit back and let him die.
1. Chapter 1

_**Pending Trust  
**_

Even though he was inside, it was cold. His blanket was very thin and itchy. Zuko tossed back and forth trying to get sleep. Trying to ignore the cold, and cope with the thin itchy blanket. It didn't help that he had just been threatened by the water tribe girl.

Despite all his efforts he ended up spreadeagled on his back looking up at the cracking stone ceiling in dismay. He threw back the covers roughly and tossed his legs to the side of the bed, sitting up. The teen glanced out the window to his right, a crescent moon hung dimly behind the black clouds. He ran his fingers through his hair irritably, stood up and walked out the doorway to his room.

"Where are you going?"

Zuko froze in his mid stride as he recognized her voice, and tried to revive his stopped heart. He coughed before responding.

"I—uh." he began.

"You-uh?" she said angrily shaking her head in agitation, coming towards him a finger poking him pointedly in the chest. He took a step back, but she quickly filled the gape. "Explain yourself-now." Katara put great emphasis on the 'now' part.

"I-uh-I, couldn't sleep," even to him it sounded just a bit lame.

"Likely story." She sneered sarcastically "...I don't believe you."

"Fine. I'll go back--" he started before she interrupted him harshly.

"I'm sure." she snapped.

Zuko growled inwardly trying to keep himself from yelling.

"Yeah." he stated plainly.

He started walking back, and became quickly aware that the girl hadn't left, and remained still hot on his heels, a scowl planted firmly on her pretty, dark complected face.

"What are you doing?" he asked looking over his shoulder narrowing his golden eyes just slightly.

"I'm going with you." She said authoritatively.

"Wouldn't that be," he paused shortly "..A little inappropriate,"

She huffed in annoyance "No." she said shortly ignoring his implication.

"Whatever." he replied back hotly cutting a kingly hand through the air in begrudging acceptance of her impudence.

He went in his room standing by his window. The breeze blew at his hair. He turned around when he heard a rustling sound.

"Are you, going through my stuff?" He asked a little disbelieving at her boldness.

"I am." she answered without even a trace amount of guilt.

"How can you just--?" she cut him off quickly.

"I'm not letting you hurt us. I'm looking for some sort of evidence to incriminate you so I can get you away from Aang." She explained easily.

Zuko pulled in an indignant breath. "I can't believe you!" he shouted an angry red flush forming on his cheeks.

"Well, I can't trust you!" She shot back turning away from her work to glare at him.

"Why can't you just give me a chance!" he said getting closer to her throwing his arms around him empathetically.

"I already did, at Ba-sing-se!" she countered.

That stopped his tirade in it's path.

"You're right, but couldn't you at least give me a little respect? Anything?" he asked his arms resting back at his sides.

"Respect! You haven't done one thing that would deserve even an once of 'respect'!" She shouted her face becoming flushed.

Zukos jaw worked.

"Couldn't you at least stop treating me like dirt!" he asked loudly.

She looked at him with extremely icy eyes. She tossed his bag at him it hit him right in the gut as he caught it. "No." she stated flatly stomping away.

"Fine!" he shouted after her tossing his bag away on his bed. The teen looked at the picture of his Uncle sitting beside his bed before he himself stomped away out his door. He wasn't about to stay here now. As a matter of fact the angry prince flew right past Katara on his way out.

"Hey!" She shouted, but he completely ignored her.

* * *

Zuko didn't know how far he walked all he knew was that the clear open outside--away from the temple was nothing short of being absolutely liberating. Especially since he was away from his hot -tempered 'probation' officer. 

His calm face was quickly replaced by total surprise. Zuko leaned back with cat like reflexes barely avoiding the deadly trail of a black dagger. Adrenaline began pumping through his veins at full speed his senses hit complete alertness. Daggers flew at him again this time in a swarm like pattern he ducked, but one sliced into his right arm and another left a rivulet of blood on his cheek.

A black masked form landed crouched in from of him then swiftly stood up. The hiss of metal pierced the dark cold air of the night. Zuko's eyes widened in a fearful kind of wonderment. The sword was beautiful, and that beautiful sword wanted nothing more than to slice through the flesh of his neck and remove his head from his body.

The clouds moved away from the moon just long enough that he noticed the fire emblem on the persons chest. Zuko did a double take. So it was an official assassin then. He couldn't say he was that surprised. Luckily, he still had the small advantage of being out in the open, he would hate to think what would have happened if he had actually been asleep.

Guess he did have some luck after all. He was dodging the sword with ease but he couldn't do this forever. Even now the strokes were closing in. There was only so much dodging he could do. He had to get that sword away from this guy.

There! He spied an opening, it was small and he could lose an arm, but he decided he had no other choice but to go for it. It was do or die.

He reached with his left hand and hissed through his teeth a little as the sword nicked the upper half of his palm, his accuracy hadn't been quite perfect enough, but he had the leverage he needed. Zuko pulled the mans arm the held the sword up and keeping his feet wide he punched the guy in the face with his free hand. As the man fell back ward Zuko pushed the mans sword hand down and bringing his right hand forward he popped the mans sword hand out of its socket hyper extending it with a nasty crunching sound. The man cried out in pain letting go of his sword.

Zuko picked the blade up off the ground swiftly, and quicker than the man in black could recover, he had it pointed at his neck.

"I think you've lost," He stated plainly.

"You should have killed me when you had the chance." The man said his hand flying from his stomach releasing a couple daggers. Zuko blocked the one that was trained on his heart using the recently acquired swords blade, but the other hit him to the left of his sternum making him cough and fall back. The assassin mad his way toward the down boy systematically grabbing a short-sword from his belt. Zuko blocked the descending short sword with stick from the ground but the high quality of the fire nation sword would not be denied, and it's descent was only delayed a millisecond before continuing down onto the prone teen.

The blade just missed him as he rolled out of the way. His opponent having to pull the sword out of the ground gave Zuko the slight advantage as he used the ground as leverage to deliver a kick literally full of fire at the man.

Either by dumb luck or a twist of fate, just as the assassin tried to avoid the hot attack a rock tripped him, which, was only worsened by the fact that he was also precariously located by the fog filled edge of a cliff. His cry echoed loudly in the wide empty expanse to which he would most likely meet his death. Zuko fell back on his elbows in exhaustion.

"I'm sure luck was on my side for a moment there." he said trying to stand up with a pained effort. He felt the warm moist blood leaking from his chest with agony. Every breath he took sent a sharp spasm of pain down his left side.

"Damn. That hurts like hell." he winced. He decided standing could wait for a while. He half heartedly untied and pulled the sash from his pants in an effort to use it as a way to staunch the bleeding, but the sash quickly became bled through. Zuko knew he had to get up and get some help at least make it back to his room where it would be a little less freezing. He breathed out and noticed the smoky trail it left in the air. He forced himself to stand. His bore the pain grinding his teeth.

He limped a little noticing also that a dagger had graced his left calf too.

"Wonderful. Just glad to be alive, I guess" he mumbled a more than a little sarcasm seeping into his words. As he pushed a branch out of his way, what he saw was probably the last thing he wanted to see. It was the water tribe girl.

"Hey." he paused a little trying to hide his choke of pain with a choppy sigh "Nice night, huh?" he closed one eye in a wincing manner. He pulled his jacket around him trying to push past her. She put her hand on his chest.

"Don't take ano--" she stopped at the wet sensation she hastily pulled he hand back and examined it in the moonlight. Her face twisted from anger to shock.

"You're..." she choked.

He took her shock as an opportunity to push past her.

"Hey!" she cried out after him.

"Seriously, Zuko! Stop!"

He stopped, but he did not turn around.

She ran up to him grabbing him by the shoulders as if to hold him there. "I know I said that I didn't trust you and all, but that doesn't mean that I..." she didn't know how to continue.

"I'm going to..." he didn't finish because his eyes rolled back into his head and he fell forward. Katara barely managed to hold him up. She hugged him to her and sat down on her haunches gently laying him on the ground. She reached her hands forward and pushed back his blood soaked over shirt. She hissed between her teeth at the location of the wound. She ripped his shirt around the cut, examining it. She pulled water from her canteen and went to work on his wound. Katara didn't have time to even wonder what had happened to him. She had to stop the bleeding.

"Don't die," she pleaded.

The clouds cleared away for a moment reflecting off of Zukos' unusually pale face. The moons light soothed Katara calming her muscles and her mind almost completely serene now, she was closing the wound little by little. Stitching the layers of muscle and vessels. The boys body shivered a little. Kataras hands stopped glowing and fell to her sides in exhaustion.To her relief the bleeding had stopped and the wound was reduced to a small scab. Now that Katara could examine him more closely and in the light of the moon she noticed a small scratch on his face and further examination led to the discovery of a wound on his right arm and left leg.

"The one on your arm is really deep I should..." she said out loud as she placed her hand on the wound. She was startled by the sensation of a cold hand curling around her arm. He just stared at her with a strange expression. "Please, stop looking at me like that." she said uneasily trying to hold back tears that just came upon her suddenly. He turned his golden stare away from her letting her go as his hand fell back to his side listlessly.

She didn't turn away she just continued to look at him blue eyes wide. The wind blew tossing her hair in her face. Zuko shivered visibly. Katara stood up quickly. She knew she wouldn't be able to move him.

"Stay here, I'll be back," She said assuringly. The girl thought she saw him nod, and she ran off to fetch some blankets

He watched her go until she was out of his sight. Then he moved his knees up and managed to stand. He walked the opposite direction.

When Katara returned a few moments later she to find him gone she frowned. At first she thought maybe she had come to the wrong place but she noticed a spot of blood and not only that, but a trail of blood.

"The wound on his leg." She said to herself following the trial.

She found him actually quite farther than she would have thought he could have made it. For a moment she watched him sitting there on what was once an intricately carved rock the monks had crafted, it was now more of a mossy cracked rock. She watched as he traced his chest were she had healed him. Finally she spoke.

"Hey, I thought I told you to stay put." she said a little annoyance creeping in her voice.

"Why are you here?" he asked looking down at his feet.

"I have blankets...for you." she said as if uncertain of her own intentions.

"It is pretty cold, I guess." he said listlessly.

She came forward surprising him a little as she dropped the blankets on his back. She sat down beside him fidgeting with her hands in her lap.

"What happened to you?" She asked the question that had been burning in her mind.

"My father sent an assassin to kill me," he stated as straight forward, as if they were talking about the weather.

"An assassin?" Katara said disbelievingly

"Yeah, I guess my last visit really pissed him off." he finished a small painful chuckle escaping his lips.

The girl felt a little twinge in her heart. She looked at him trying to say something finally she decided and she began.

"Look," she paused "I'm sorry." she winced at the lame irony of those words.

"No, you're not sorry. You feel sorry for me." Zuko replied as if she had shoved glass down his throat. "I don't want your pity." he continued pausing for a moment then turning to look at her "I want your trust, and this time I intend to earn it." he said with determination in his eyes. She could almost see his heart beating outside his chest.

"I see." She said simply conceding nothing.

A moment of silence passed through them, but it wasn't a hostile silence it was more like a neutral, perhaps a forming comradeship type of silence. Katara looked down at his hand and remembering herself she grabbed a white roll from the pouch she had retrieved that hung at her waist. Then she reached over picking up his hand gingerly. She bandaged it with practiced ease also making sure to wrap around the thumb so it would stay in place. Zuko observed her work in silent admiration.

The water tribe girl crouched down on the ground in front of him to doctor his leg. He watched her raptly. She tried to be gentle when rolling up his pant leg but she still managed to illicit a hiss of pain from him. She looked closely at the gash, it was totally straight across his calf.

"Talk about precision. This guy didn't mess around." she said simply. Zuko remained quiet.

Katara looked even closer at the wound shaking her head.

"It's worse than I thought," she paused "Maybe I can--" she pulled water from her pouch and held it around her hands. The water began to glow, and that strange sensation that he had felt earlier when she healed him, encompassed his leg. She finished by wrapping his calf as well, and stood up.

"Ah, it's not healed all the way but it's the best I can do." She said regrettably

"It's fine. Thank you." he assured.

"We'll have to make sure to get the proper medicines on those wounds in the morning." She said.

"Let's go back." Katara said finally, looking at him. He nodded in agreement and started to walk wincing a little.

"Here." she offered him a shoulder. He was hesitant, but he leaned on her nonetheless. They made their way back clinging to each other in silence.

* * *

I'm not sure whether to make this a story or a one-shot. I'm considering a continuation, which, would be a Zuko/Katara story (of course). Also, for some reason I could not think of a title! I settled for this one though--lest I would have gone insane. Well, more insane. 


	2. Chapter 2

_A/N before you read--I recall having a review that mentioned the overall terrible OOCness and unrealistic atrocity of the first chapter. Well, if that person happens to be reading this—I'm probably about to upset you some more. I'm about to toss the characters into my story, and bend them to my will! Laughs maniacally. _

Chapter 2 

Groggy and sore Zuko rolled over in his bed.

He groaned in irritation as his wounds reminded him of what had happened the night before. His sorry excuse for a father, had sent an assassin after him.

"Why do you hate me so much, father?" he whispered out loud resting his elbows on his pillow, his chin resting in his hands.

"Hey."He was startled to hear her voice coming from his doorway. He turned around abruptly his blanket falling from his bare chest

"Katara?" He asked, as if he couldn't be sure.

She turned away "I..uh. I'll come back later."

Zuko caught the hint. "Oh, yeah. Of course." he said scratching his head a little nervously his face flushing slightly. He watched his doorway where she had been standing. For some reason the scar on his face felt more obvious and ugly than usual.

He almost felt like laughing for some reason. He stretched his arms wide above his head swinging his legs over across his bed. He quickly retrieved his folded clothes from the stone table at the end of his bed. Something else became clear, other than his fathers obvious hatred for him.

That Katara had helped him. She had treated his wounds, and had barely hinted at maybe beginning to trust him. Zuko couldn't hold back a sigh. He couldn't let this small chance to gain her favor slip from him, but how? Should he be extra nice, or something. The ex-prince growled that even sounded stupid in his head. He tied the string to his shirt roughly.

"I don't have a clue." he groaned to himself, running his fingers through his hair.

Katara slowly moved the water in her cup in a circular motion, lazily rotating her wrist. She was lost in thought. She felt so much sorrow towards Zuko, but she didn't know how to like him. The water-bender couldn't bring herself to just trust him fully.

"So, what did you want?" The afore thought of fire-bender, interceded on her thoughts. She stopped her hand in mid motion to look at him with a face of mixed emotions. Zukos eyes made contact with hers for a moment, until he turned away a small flush gracing his cheeks. The fire-bender didn't know why those blue eyes of hers pierced him so.

"I just came to check on your wounds. So, how are they?" Katara asked flatly.

"They're--" he paused flexing his hands nervously. "Good." he finished plainly still avoiding eye contact. She studied him for a moment, noting his nervous hands and his inability to look her in the eyes. Could this be the same fierce pursuer she remembered? Silence passed between them. It was Katara that finally broke the quiet.

"Oh, that's good. Any soreness?"

"No." he answered quickly "I'm as good as new." he finished giving her an honorable fire nation bow. Before she could say any more he quickly did a one eighty, and quickly made his way of in the other direction.

"I really don't think you should be pushing yourself too far, Zuko." She insisted reasonably.

"I'm fine." he retorted a little more sharply than he intended

Kataras anger got the best of her.

"Fine, go run a triathlon see if I care." she snapped. She didn't want him to get the idea that she cared for him. Really, absurd!

"Fine." he said walking away.

Zuko held his chest. How could he make himself look so foolish? The teen just couldn't understand why it was so hard to talk to her.

"Good morning!"

Zuko jumped back, startled at Aangs sudden appearance. He hadn't even heard him coming, at all. He did feel eerily tired. He had slept until late even. Well, he had lost a lot of blood. He shrugged the thought off.

"Hello." he said back to the hyper active boy, waving his hand nervously.

"Are you ready to firebend?" The energized Avatar asked.

"Of course." Zuko assured.

"Oh, if it isn't mister sleepy jerk!" Sokka said loudly across were he was sitting on a rock sharpening his boomerang. Toph promptly used her bending to smack him off the rock onto his face. She smiled with great self-satisfaction. Zuko couldn't resist the smile that tugged at his mouth especially at the sound of Sokkas explicatives and obvious annoyance at Tophs actions. Aang who was beside him chuckled. Toph, she stuck up for him quite a bit actually—mainly because she didn't really have the memories of him at his worst.

They walked to what had become their designated 'training area. It was a very rocky expanse, where it wouldn't be likely to catch something on fire.

"Let's begin, Avatar." Zuko said turning to bow to Aang, who did likewise.

"Alright, bring your arm--" The fire-bender grunted a little as pain radiated up his arm.

"Okay." Aang shrugged, comically mimicking Zuko by bringing his arm up and grunting in pain making his eye twitch a little. The ex-prince couldn't help but express a little annoyance at the boy "No. Like this." This time Zuko bore with the pain in his arm throwing his arm and elbow up in a perfectly strait punch, shooting a stream of fire forward.

Aang looked at him boyishly, impressed. "Okay!" he said eagerly throwing his arms forward likewise. His flame was not as grand, but it was adequate.

"That's alright, but not good enough. Keep working on that move until I'm satisfied." Zuko said, mainly because he thought that his arm was going to burn off.

"Alright, I'll keep practicing!" he said enthusiastically as Zuko leaned casually on a boulder beside him. He noted the coolness of it soothed him a little.

Katara back at the camp chewed on her bottom lip.

"Toph, Sokka. Last night Zuko was--"

"Did he do something! Was he consorting with the scary devil woman Azula?" Sokka exclaimed interrupting her and putting his fingers beside his hands to look like horns.

Katara rolled her eyes.

"No! Would you let me finish!" she yelled at him in sheer annoyance.

Toph and Sokka both leaned forward with quiet interest.

"What, Katara?" Toph prompted when she didn't speak immediately.

"Well, last night an assassin sent from Zuko's father came and attacked him. It was a near miss on Zukos part. I hardly saved him." She looked worried.

"Well, the jerk looked fine." Sokka shrugged.

"Is he okay?" Toph questioned.

"He said he was." Katara said but not in a very convincing way.

"What happened to the assassin?" Sokka asked not seeming to care about Zuko, really.

"I think he's dead." Katara said

"You think?" Sokka said frantically "What if he's not and he already went back to the fire nation, and right not Azula devil woman is coming on her komodlizerdwhats and with an army the size--!" he didn't finish because Toph placed her fist on his skull.

"What was that for?" he mumbled rubbing his epicranial aponeurosis in agitation.

"For being a loud, obnoxious, moron." she answered him simply

"Oh, now it's okay." He said sarcastically.

"Really?" Toph said with a girl y infliction.

"No! Stop hitting me!" he shouted back.

She scoffed using her foot to earth-bend the ground out from under him.

"Guys! This is serious." Katara said throwing water on both of them.

"I hate benders..." Sokka said, lying prone on the ground, his hair dripping.

"Ah! I'm going to go talk to him." She waved at the air as if to clear pests, and walked off.

The earth-bender looked thoughtful "This is a little serious. I really hope that assassin guy is dead. Otherwise, Zuko's not the only one in trouble." Toph said aloud.

"No kidding." Sokka replied not failing to notice the streaks of mud on his tunic. He just sat back down on his log and continued to sharpen his boomerang, but the furrow in his brow gave away concern.

Katara appeared suddenly in Zuko's peripheral vision. He tensed a little.

"Hey, Aang." She said in a friendly manner.

"Oh, hi Katara." he said pausing in mid motion, and dropping his arms to his side.

She raised an eyebrow at Zukos leaning form. "Taking it easy?"

"He's practicing. I don't want to get too complicated too fast. He'll get this move down and then we'll do the next set." He answered coolly.

Katara looked him up and down. "Okay, well, I came to watch." the water-bender explained as she sat down on a boulder a few feet away. Zuko studied her a moment before answering, "Okay." was his flat response.

The Avatar had resumed his practice and was throwing fierce flames outward from his fists. He stopped his chest heaving. "I think I have it down," he conceded looking at Zuko expectantly.

The ex-prince stepped forward with notable effort. "Yes, you do." he agreed.

"You don't have to sound so disappointed." Katara chimed in suddenly.

The fire-bender glanced at her indifferently.

"Okay, lets do the next set." He said

"This move requires more control." Zuko picked up on his pupils worried expression.

"I know you can handle it, don't worry." He assured.

Zuko was a little pleased that Aang actually seemed to relax noticeably. He began the motion by bringing his hands back rolled into fist just past his hips. Katara studied the fire-bender raptly and did not fail to notice him wincing. She raised her hand off the palm of her hand alertly. Zuko clenched his teeth in effort bringing his right arm across his chest and then his left repeatedly. By the end he was hurting quite a bit and sweating profusely.

"Are you okay?" Aang asked incredulously raising an eyebrow.

"Yeah, I'm fine..." he trailed off. "Go ahead, show me what you can do."

The boy nodded the way he did the motion was flawless, but the flames were somewhat lacking.

"You need more fire." He said simply

"I don't think I can control it." The avatar admitted sadly his head down cast.

"No, you can watch" he swallowed sweat beading on his forehead. "Watch me again." He finally finished. The moves this time were notably more choppy but Zuko finished.

Aang stepped forward and started the motion but before he could even start on his next step he seemed to become aware that his flame was coming towards him. Zuko reached forward to grab the flame and bended it away from him quickly but Aang cried out in pain. "Ow." he moaned falling to his knees holding his chest.

Katara was immediately by the boys side. "Aang!" She said her voice laced with concern as she held her glowing hands over the burn on his chest.

"I failed." he said hoarsely.

Zuko relaxed his shoulders and walked towards the two.

"No. You're fine. Just rest for now. Can you walk?" She asked

"Yeah." he answered

"Good." She gave him a motherly smile as he pattered off towards camp.

"I thought you were taking it slow?" She said accusingly standing up and putting her hands on her hips he eyes drilling in on the now collected Zuko.

"I was, this happens when you fire-bend it's not all easy and fun like water-bending." he wiggled his fingers in the air as a mocking gesture of water-bending

"What's that supposed to mean?" She said crossing her arms and furrowing her brows. The ex-prince didn't like the idea of continuing to argue with her.

"Nothing, it's fine. He'll be okay." he waved his hand dismissively.

"Yeah, okay I guess I'll just consider myself lucky that he wasn't totally fried!" she shouted angrily

"You should." Zuko said coldly looking at her in the eye for the first time that he could remember.

She was taken aback by his confidence and this time it was her that looked away.

"I..." she started her anger diminished.

"Fire is dangerous, Katara. I think Aang, as my student, understands that. Please, don't hold this against me." He pleaded his voice finally wavering a little.

The water-bender looked back up at him.

"Why are you sweating so much?" She asked, raising an eyebrow.

Zuko sat down rubbing his temples. "I'm okay, you go and check on the Avatar." he insisted leaning back on the rock behind hims cooling surface. "Go.." he slurred slightly.

"You're still not well, are you? I knew you were lying." She said evenly, putting her hand on his forehead, it was cool and clammy.

"You're still suffering from blood loss. You need food and rest—now." She put double emphasis on the 'now'

Zuko sighed "I'm surrounded by all of you and I feel so alone." he blurted.

"What?" she asked her heart thumping loudly, suddenly.

"I just feel like you all don't know me and I'm just going to fade away." he breathed his pale face engulfed in sadness.

She was at a loss of words so she just reached out pausing a moment before resting her hand on his shoulder. "You're not alone. I'm here. Let me trust you, and don't let me down."

Those blue eyes of hers. What was it about them that made him so entranced?

"I'm tired, Katara." he said closing his eyes.

She grabbed his wrist and found his pulse, it was beating evenly.

"He passed out." she said aloud

For some reason she reached out and touched his scar. "Zuko." she said.

_A/N I realize the wordy Anatomy reference to Sokkas' head wasn't necessary, but I couldn't resist—I've been studying Anatomy for exams. I wanted to work on this more—like do the next chapter, but alas, I must study! _


End file.
